


Cupid.

by decorus



Category: Klaus (2019), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: also jesper and klaus sound old at times, jack and jesper would be good buddies honestly, jesper is slowly becoming friends with klaus again, jesper’s literally Cupid, jesper’s pent up feelings TM, klaus is a good movie, relationships’ll come eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21763384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decorus/pseuds/decorus
Summary: “So, I’m dead?”“It seems like it.”“. . .That’s. . .no, I don’t believe that.”A postman dies, gets resurrected by the moon, and it only becomes weirder from there.
Relationships: Jesper Johanssen & Klaus
Comments: 30
Kudos: 167





	1. Postman.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Sir, you’re dead.”

_Cold._

It’s cold.

Not the good, relaxing cold that some yearn for in the winter—it’s _freezing_. It’s dark, it’s definitely cold, and there’s nothing that he can possibly hear at the moment—okay, maybe he can hear the wind, but that’s it.

Surprisingly enough, the ground was comfortable—had he been sleeping on the ground the entire time? He’s covered in snow; it was useful enough to shake it off. 

A minute passes, and he feels something heavy on his back. The weight of his body shifts, and he falls into the snow again. 

“Perfect,” he mumbles, lifting himself off the ground yet again, trying to take off whatever pulled him down in the first place—it feels. . .

Fluffy.

A small grab became a pluck that slightly hurt him, and all he finds are feathers in his hand.

With a loud yelp (or scream, depending on who you ask), Jesper throws the white feathers onto the floor, looking at how they were also stained with a pinkish hue to them, as well. He examines one of the wings, then the other—then back to the other again.

“What is going on. . .?”

Now that he has a better look at things, the postman scans the area, looking for anything out of the ordinary—only the moonlight was there, and nothing else. No one was there; just him and his satchel of letters were the only victims in the night.

“I really hope no one stuck these on me for a prank—some people have quite the nerve to do such a thing. . .”

To add weird to injury, it felt as if the wind scooped him up in its arms. Jesper screeched this time, noting that it wasn’t the wind that lifted him off the ground: it was the _wings._

He was _flying_.

”Okay—this is such a prank—whoever did this, can you let me down, please?!”

No response.

”Please?”

Nothing.

“. . .I’m serious, come on!”

Still nothing.

“Just let me **_down_**!”

That dropped him—he could’ve sworn that he saw fire when he did fall, as well. 

Whispers only sufficed to him after his miserable fall.

Voices? Check. Wings? Check. Failing to understand why this was happening to him for some reason? _Check_.

“. . .This isn’t a prank, is it?,” he asks the person that’s whispering to him in this moment. But still, no one was there, and he had no idea who spoke to him.

But there was the moonlight. Maybe the moon was talking to him. . .? No, that’s not something he believes, no—how can a moon _talk_?! 

However, he does look up at it, and the whispering becomes more apparent, growing louder and louder until it says something that makes the postman stare in surprise.

“I’m _what_ now?”

“ **Sir, you’re dead.”**

Fainting into the snow Jesper does right about—now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the mim: mr. johansen? MR. JOHANSEN? oh my fucking god he fucking dead
> 
> but yeah this is literally the first chapter of this thing and i promise you that it isn’t really gonna be all the way good feely?? yeah we got despair here and there


	2. Moving.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I always get the short end of the stick.”
> 
> The postman meets an unlikely friend.

He’s been out (again) for thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes, and no realization has occurred within that thirty minutes. How? How was he dead? He had just delivered some mail to a small child nearby, and now he’s gone, erased.

_Dead._

Now he has wings, and he honestly wants to snip those things off. He doesn’t believe it, even if he’s unconscious. 

Somehow, Jesper can hear whispering, but it was closer, and it hung in the air without a trace—it feels icier than then snow, at best—what was this?

The whispers cease, and then a poke. Whatever was poking him, it felt like a branch.

Another poke was administered—what, no, _who_ is this?

“Hello? Strange guy sleepin’ in the forest? Are you okay?”

No response. He probably fell on that rock too hard to say anything. Now the postman feels something hard hit him—still cold, nevertheless. Was that a. . .snowball?

That wakes Jesper up. 

And that also makes him scream. 

“Who are _you_?!,” he says, scrambling in sudden fear because there was a _person_ right there, in front of him, with a staff instead of a stick.

“Jack Frost.”

”That—that’s impossible—you can’t be Jack Frost! I made that whole story up when I got sick!,” Jesper responds in some surprise before standing up. 

“Dude, I’m pretty sure that you died ages ago. No one just falls asleep in the snow like that.”

Jesper has a moment—a moment that consists of fear and horror, but quickly reverts to a more calm and collected mannerism. So much emotion from a dead man is something you don’t see everyday.

“Okay, okay—this is _definitely_ a joke, right? You got me, “ _Jack_ ”, you really got me with that one!”

Jack stood there for just a moment, staring way too much at the man before him, clearing his throat before saying this:

“Look, I get it, but—you’re a postman, _formerly_ in Smeerensburg, who ended up dying on a cold winter night, lost, confused, and now the Man in the Moon chose you to be a new Guardian or something of the sort. _Are we starting to connect the dots?”_

_That_ makes Jesper want to strangle the mess out of this stranger. Godammit, he reminds him of Mogens. 

“. . .No. Not at all. We’re not connecting any dots.”

“Good, good—we’re off to a _great_ start!,” Frost says with a small chipper of sarcasm, handing the postman the hat that kept falling each and every time he fell to the ground. “You might want to strap in for this one, though—it’s gonna be bumpy.”

“Where are we going for that to happen?”

”The North Pole, of course—you do know where that is, right?”

A shake of the head. Probably not.

“Of course you do! Well, if you just follow me, we can totally get there safely.”

One little float was all it took for Jack to fly, while a whole two flaps of those large weights on Jesper’s back was a struggle to deal with.

“Now, um. . .where to, Frost?”

”The North.”

“That doesn’t give me any insight—.”

Within a few moments, Jack was gone; the flying postman was still there, nevertheless. But he tries to at least catch up (while flying, and still failing).

“Do you want to know something, Jack?”

”Yeah. What’s up?”

”I always get the short end of the stick.”

”. . .You know what? You’ll probably make a great edition to the team, man.”

So much for being a dead postman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jack: did you want your hat
> 
> jesper: yeah
> 
> jack: *throws a christmas tree*
> 
> jesper: i said my hat
> 
> jack: i thought you said christmas tree
> 
> jesper: WHY THE FUCK WOULD I SAY CHRISTMAS TREE


	3. North.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s you.”
> 
> Seeing old, and not even trying to see the new.

“Are we there yet. . .? I feel like as if I’m gonna fall. . .”

“Nope.”

Another loud sigh, and Jesper really wants to stop flying at this point. Is there a way to slow these down? He can’t even keep up with Jack. How can he do this so flawlessly?

”Are we there yet, Jack?”

“I think I was lying to you at first—oh yeah, we’re here!”

“Thank _god_ ,” Jesper says in response, forgetting how to fly down at a moment’s notice before quickly flapping his wings again. “I thought we had gotten lost because of you and your unspecific directions, Frost.”

“But at least we’re still alive, right?”

“True.”

“Oh, yeah, and watch your head—,” Jack warns him a bit too late as they approach the landing spot, and unfortunately, Jesper hits his head midway into landing. 

“I said watch your head!”

“You’d really say it _after_?!”

“I said it before!,” Jack says, pushing open the doors of the spot to reveal a workshop. That made the postman become mesmerized; the blues, the yellows, the—what were these creatures frolicking around and carrying boxes? He was confused—but interested.

It was like deja vu. . .has he been here before?

“Hey, big guy! I found him, and it took me a whole millennia just to do it!”

“At least I didn’t give you the sleigh to do it—who is the new Guardian, anyways?”

Why does that voice sound so familiar? It can’t—no, he _couldn’t_ be alive right now. . .that voice. It was just like his—that same voice, the same raspy voice— _everything_.

Jesper’s the first one to arrive in the middle of the room. 

He was right.

The first thing that he does is stare. The familiar man turns around, almost as if he were going to greet him, but he stops, staring back at the postman with lots (too much) disbelief. 

“It’s you.”

The words were drawn out as if Jesper was choking on them.

”It’s _you_ ,” he repeats.

There’s a moment of complete silence, until Klaus starts coughing, just to break it, at least.

“Jesper.” 

“You,” Jesper says, moving closer. Either way, he couldn’t believe it.

“Jesper _._ ”

“ _You_ ,” he says it again, but Jesper sounds rather. . .upset. He didn’t know what to do in this moment, but he feels as if he’s gotten too close to Klaus now.

“Jesper, calm down.”

” _You_.” 

“Jesper—.”

”You!”

“Jesper!”

”Stop saying my name!”

”You’re burning the floor,” Jack says instead, slowly pushing the fired-up (literally) postman away from Klaus with the staff. 

“You really need to chill.”

Fire powers? A possibility. 

Jesper still stares at Klaus, and Klaus still stares at Jesper; both of them hold different expressions, some that can’t even be explained. Hurt was possibly one of them that they both showed to each other.

“So, you decided to disappear, huh? Without telling anyone what happened?”

”You know I didn’t mean to, Jesper.”

”You didn’t have a reason to go.”

“I. . .I had to.”

”So _what_? Being around all of us was too much for you?”

“What are you talking about? At least I wasn’t the one who came up with this whole thing!”

”But you turned into this without telling anyone where you were going, Klaus!”

“I had my reasons!”

”Who cares about your reasons?!”

Meanwhile in all of this arguing, Jack decided to take an elf and shake it, primarily to start the whole Guardian-induction thing, yadda yadda yadda, that Klaus couldn’t even do because he was currently doing and back-and-fourth with Jesper.

“I’m trying to tell you, Jesper—.”

”You don’t have to tell me anything!”

“It’s important—.”

”I _died,_ and somehow, I have to see you here again! Klaus, I don’t want to deal with this whole Christmas thing, and I certainly don’t want to become some freakin’ Guardian!”

The ceremony cuts itself off from there when he says that.

“I told you that you’d definitely fit in. That just proved my entire theory,” Jack says, freezing the elf that he picked up in the first place. “So, he’s probably gonna go on some self-discovery adventure, revel in that fact that he’s actually dead, and then come back as a full fledged Guardian, right?”

“I don’t think he’d do that.”

”Why?”

“Because he left, Jack. That’s why.”

There’s a bunch of evidence (the burn holes for example) as to how he left anyway—the landing spot, of course.

“That sucks. You’re probably gonna go after him, aren’t you?”

”Give him time. He’ll come back.”

“Yeah, right.”

Jack picks up the elf that he just froze—he’s probably gonna go unfreeze it by setting that thing in the sun for a while. 

Klaus sighs, knowing that Jesper will take more time to come around than any of the other Guardians. . .he was literally the same—just like when he came to Smeerensburg.

Back to tinkering he goes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> klaus: i am so sorry
> 
> jesper: i thought you were bae,, turns out you’re just fam
> 
> klaus: bruh


	4. Others (?).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “This is awkward, even for you.”
> 
> Too many Guardians, so little time.

Klaus was wrong.

The postman hasn’t come back, and it’s already been a full hour. At this point, it’s for the best to talk to the postman and explain what’s going with this new Guardian stuff. Then again, he’s probably still upset. Who could blame him?

So he sent Jack instead, even if he protested. Jesper might not want to see Klaus himself right now. . .

“Postman? Postman that started setting the floor on fire? Postman?”

This is gonna be harder than he thought. How’s he supposed to find a skinny postman? He’s nowhere near the shop, Klaus’ room, and for some odd reason, the landing spot’s doors aren’t even open! 

“Postman? Seriously, I’m getting a tiny bit worried here. . .Postman?!”

“ _Jesper_.”

Oh—there he is! He was next to the doors all this time! That whole search party was worthless. “Oh, sorry, _postman,_ but I thought you’d left like an hour ago. I didn’t know you were just sitting here, underneath your tall hat and. . .hey, are you alright? You don’t look so chipper.”

Well, that makes Jesper push his hat down more, just to hide his face.

”Right—right. You’re still angry, and that’s understandable. I was like that, too. I really didn’t understand _why_ I was chosen, or _how_ it even happened. But I’m here now, fighting for children and protecting their dreams—and you can probably do the same.”

A small lift of the hat was some sort of response, right?

”Come on, _Jesper_. I’ll let you meet everyone else, just to lift your sorrows or something.”

” _Everyone_ _else_?”

”What do you think, there’s three Guardians? Nope.”

A postman sighing about anything might just make Jack’s day at this point.

————————— 💌 ——————————

“You _know_ him? He looks weak—he’d could probably topple ova’ with just a push.”

“I just _love_ how your teeth sparkle, Jesper! They remind me of Jack’s so much—do you floss a lot?”

“This seems overwhelming, don’t you think?,” Klaus whispers to Jack, but Jack simply brushes that worry off. “Look at his face, Jack. He’s probably stressed.”

“Nope; if he starts setting stuff on fire, don’t blame me.”

Jesper tries to wiggle his way out of all of this, but he still gets pulled into all of the mayhem that these other Guardians are pushing toward him. Even this small sandy guy is holding him! 

“Okay, um—can I introduce myself please—this is a bit excessive—.”

He spoke too softly for that one, so Klaus does it himself, mainly to let Jesper speak for once. The postman shuffles a little from the group, and clears his throat of any awkwardness.

”My name’s Jesper—Jesper Johansen—and I, um. . .I’m the new Guardian, I guess? I think so.”

. . .Bunnymund is the only one that laughs at that one. “Seriously? _Him_? You’re telling me that the Man in the Moon picked _this guy_ to be a Guardian? What’s next, he’ll pick a leprechaun?!”

“I think you should really stop that, Carrots—this one has powers that we’ll probably need.”

”Carrots? Speak for yourself, snowflake,” Bunny retorts at Jack before going back to taunting Jesper. “Besides, what _can_ he do anyway, other than delivering mail to people? That’s not a power! That’s something even normal people can do!”

“Bunny, _please_. Powers or not, it’s his choice,” Klaus interrupts said taunting, pushing the rabbit away from the postman so he could speak to him alone. 

“There is something that could help you, Jesper. I’m sure enough that you can still help others with it.”

“And what is that, exactly? Learning to leave?”

”It’s not—it’s finding your _center_.”

There’s a small “oh, here we go” from Jack as Klaus walks away with Jesper.

This is gonna take longer that it should.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bunnymund: YOU READY TO FUCKIN DIE MATE
> 
> jack: I’M A BAD BITCH YOU CAN’T KILL ME
> 
> bonus: 
> 
> jesper: i just got a sudden burst of energy and i think that’s my body’s last “hoorah” before it shuts down
> 
> klaus: it,, already shut down what does this mean


	5. Guidance.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s not what others find in you; it’s what defines you.”
> 
> Guidance is an important step to balance.

“You’re taking me to another workshop?”

”Something like that.”

“Please don’t tell me it’s similar to the one you already have. . .”

“Not exactly.”

Why does he have two workshops, anyway? It’s not like he needs the other one—he’s _literally_ all magical and stuff now. He doesn’t need a workshop! Klaus could probably make toys with his hands.

“Can’t you just make toys with your powers or something? You don’t need such a primitive place anymore, Klaus,” Jesper says with a tiny hint of spite, still walking along with Klaus either way.

”That’s not how it works. I prefer to work on the toys to make them correctly—I don’t want magic to mess all of that up. Besides, the magic came from _building_ the toys.”

Finally stopping at their destination, Jesper squints a tad bit at the door. . .it’s the same door like the workshop has, just smaller. This was going to be the same thing, he knows it. 

“Klaus—it’s literally the same door.”

Klaus opens the door anyways. Has Jesper been pelted with nostalgia, because this was the exact same workshop. . .it still looked the same. The chair, the table, even the decor—it was just like the shop in Smeerensburg. 

“. . .It hasn’t changed.”

”Precisely.”

Jesper needed a moment, but that would have to wait. Walking over to the chair (without sitting in it), he folds his arms across his chest, a tired look on his face as Klaus sits down.  


“So, how was meeting the others, Jesper?”

” _Horrible_.”

“You don’t really mean that, don’t you?”

”I’m serious. They’re _horrible_. They tire me to my core.”

“I can see that. But, that’s how it is around here.”

“Of course—anyways, what’s this center stuff you’re talking about?”

“I can’t really explain it to you,” Klaus says, wondering whether or not Jesper would actually listen to him about it. “You need to find it out for yourself.”

“So, it’s like a self-discovery adventure?”

“Something like that. But, I will tell you this: it’s not what others see in you; it’s what _defines_ you.”

”Self-discovery adventure, got it,” the postman retorts with a dismissive hand. “Why here? Is it like some secret place for that? It’s the old workshop—it’s not like it has value anymore.”

“It still holds some value, at least,” Klaus says, sighing at that one. “I think it would benefit you on your “self-discovery adventure”, Jesper.” 

The postman scoffed, wanting to deny this whole destiny of some sort. Why him? He was an ordinary postman! Now, he was wings, and powers that have to deal with fire and—this was too much to handle!

“To you, it might mean something, but to me, it’s just some place we used to work together at. That’s all it is.”

“You don’t mean that either. You’re having doubts, aren’t you?”

Maybe he is. Jesper can’t really understand it, but he doesn’t know how to feel about all of. . . _this_. Even Klaus being this whole entity of magic? That’s throwing him all the way off.

“Wait, so if he calls himself Jack Frost, then—who are all the other people? That’s what I meant to ask you!”

“You can find out for yourself who they are, but around the world, I’m known as Santa Claus.”

“Excuse me, Santa- _what-now_?”

”That story’ll be told later,” the woodsman says, standing from his chair and walking to the crafting table. “But for now, you can join me.”

Jesper never noticed this, but there were strange markings on Klaus’s arms—on the left, “nice” was written, and on the right, “naughty” was there. What was with that?

No, no—this wasn’t the time to get sidetracked. Jesper, with a somewhat annoyed sigh, walks over to the table as well (with a bit of trouble because the wings kept bumping into things, even knocking a snow-globe off of the fire place).

“Anyways, what’s so important about the— _wow_.” 

“I installed something among the lines of a “center-choosing” table. This could probably help, too.”

Along the table, there were tools (mainly a hammer), some natural elements (a leaf, for example), and a single sword which had a more cutlass design to it.

Jesper went for the hammer instead, but the hammer started shocking Jesper’s hands rather quickly, causing him to immediately throw that thing in the fire.

That made Klaus upset.

Then the leaf, which basically burned up in the postman’s presence rather fast. Seeming rather disappointed, he finally went to the sword. Nothing happened—until the sword caught on fire within Jesper’s grip.

“Why does everything in this room hate me?!”

”Jesper, it doesn’t hate you, calm down.”

“Yes, it does, do you _see_ how it’s on fire and—.”

Surprisingly enough, the sword had turned into a bow, the white and pink being very apparent on the wings of the bow, too. 

“. . .It’s a bow.”

”Klaus, explain. How did it turn into a bow?”

The woodsman gives Jesper a confused (but slightly interested) look. He has no idea how to tell him that he doesn’t know why it turned into a bow instead of staying like a cutlass.

“Klaus? I’m flabbergasted—Klaus?! _Please_ explain how a sword turned into a bow!” 

He opens his mouth to say something, but he gets interrupted by a very concerning knock on the door. Both men turn to look at it, and a creature that Jesper has never seen in his entire life or career opes it with too much worry.

It says something, and Klaus is the first to react. 

“He’s _back_?”

“Who?”

“Someone that you’ll have to meet early.”

The postman now wants to scream into the fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> klaus: *says something funny*  
> jesper, catching slight feelings: AHAHAHAHA THAT WAS F U N N Y


	6. Nightmare.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Nice to meet you, Johanssen.”
> 
> An uninvited guest has words.

This was possibly the weirdest situation that Jesper’s been thrown into. Smeerensburg was just one thing that he got adjusted to, but this? This situation that had nothing to do with him? He hates this! He hates it here! “Can you please explain what’s going on, Klaus? Why are you rushing to get things done so eagerly?!,” the postman says, mostly dodging everyone as they prepare for. . .something!

“Hello, Mr. Klaus—I’ve looked at everything thus far, and I just want to say something: how did he come back from that hole in the woods? It’s just a question—.”

The stranger that was talking took a quick glance at Jesper, possibly lost in thought and lost in her wording. She had wings too, but they were white, and something of a postman’s uniform, but there was only one button on the lower half and no collar for her shirt. . .

”Who is that?”

The accent was. . .familiar. It sounded like something that he couldn’t remember, but it was so clear that he didn’t know what to say to it.

“I’ll tell you about him later, Dove,” Klaus says, making sure that she was done staring at him for a while, of course. “Right now, we need to focus on something else.”

“Oh, yeah—the task at hand! Now, how did he come back from the—.”

“Who?,” Jesper interrupts, wanting to know who the heck they were talking about. He has no idea on how to pick up on intel, but he knows it was something important they were discussing. 

“He’s gonna keep asking who, North. It’s for the best to tell him now,” Dove says in response to all of this.

“. . .Pitch. Somehow, someway, Pitch came back, and now he’s wreaking havoc across the world. His own nightmares sealed him away years ago, but. . .we have no idea as to how he got out in the first place.”

“It’s crazy, but I guess we have to stop him now.”

Jack’s notion of appearing out of nowhere always stomps Jesper in his tracks. It’s annoying, and he really needs him to stop that—but _stopping_ Pitch? How would they do that?!

“Do you guys even know how to stop him? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure that toys won’t at all!”

“ _Nice to meet you, Johanssen_.”

An unknown voice speaks through the workshop. . .who could that be? Was it a Guardian? No, it couldn’t be—the voice sounded way too sinister in order to be a Guardian. . .was this who Klaus was talking about?

“No, seriously—it’s nice to meet you. Y’know, I wouldn’t expect anyone wearing pink to be a Guardian, but here we are,” the uninvited guest spoke with some vigor, standing on top of the huge globe. 

“Well, I wouldn’t expect someone so ghastly to not be a Guardian, yet here we are,” Jesper somehow retaliates back. The whole room becomes dead silent, except for Jack, who quietly chants noises of cheering and appreciation.

“Oh, so you have a mouth, don’t you? Why don’t I just rip it off that pretty little face of yours?”

“Try me.”

Pitch throws the new Guardian a look before addressing everyone else in the entirety of the room. “I’m surprised that all of you are stunned—I thought I’d get more of a warm welcome for being _trapped_ inside a forest for seven years. But anyways, “congratulations” to your new Guardian! I hope that he has good luck with his nightmares. . . _ **he’s gonna need it.**_ ”

And in a flash, he was gone. 

Jesper wasn’t even stunned by the fact that some random villain showed up out of nowhere; the fact that he became so confident, not even feeling slight fear, is what threw him off. 

“How did I. . .”

”Way to piss him off, arrowhead. Now, he’s probably plotting to take your second chance at life!,” Bunny says, slapping the back of Jesper’s head without thinking.

“Do you mind laying off me, _Carrots_? I literally have no idea who that is, but. . .somehow, I didn’t even get scared. It was like as if I was braver than all of you. . .”

The rabbit almost clenched his hands into fists, but he tried to keep his everlasting cool with the postman. 

“You probably were,” Klaus says, placing a hand on Jesper’s shoulder, “but there’s no time to discuss it. Pitch is finally back, and it’s up to us to stop him.”

“But how are we gonna reach him that fast?”

”The sleigh, of course. Everyone loves the sleigh.”

Bunny was going to protest, but he saves that little thing that he was gonna say for later. 

Believe it or not, Jesper was probably gonna say the exact same thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pitch: it’s so fun here, we have lots of laughs!!!
> 
> also pitch @ the guardians: fuck off guys, i don’t wanna come to your guardian coronation
> 
> i’ve been doing finals and that’s why this fic hasn’t updated in a minute,,
> 
> bonus:
> 
> klaus, while hearing jesper diss pitch: well mark me down as scared and horny


End file.
